But a funny thing happened on the road from Irving, Texas to Cooperstown.

That magical arm that baffled Texas schoolboys, then major league hitters at Wrigley Field, had its own plan.

People saw the blazing fastball and the knee-buckling curve. But they never saw what was happening inside Wood’s right elbow and shoulder. The fraying of ligaments. The inflammation of tendons.

A surgeon’s knife turned what seemed like Wood’s destiny into a sad case of what might have been.

“You wonder if he hadn’t had the arm issues how good he could have been,” said Mike McGilvray, Wood’s high school baseball coach. “But you can’t look back.” Wood grew up just a few miles from Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. He used to go to the old Arlington Stadium to watch Nolan Ryan pitch. He was in the stands with his dad for one of Ryan’s no-hitters.

Now, Wood returns home wearing the road grays of the Yankees.

Wood has thrived in the role since coming to the Yankees at the trade deadline from the Indians. He had 21 appearances without allowing a run in August and September. He pitched in all three of the Yankees’ first-round games, including a memorable 10-pitch inning when nine of them were strikes.

Wood has been healthy with the Yankees, a rarity for the righty. He has been on the disabled list 14 times in his 13 seasons. He missed the entire 1999 season after Tommy John surgery and started only four games in 2006 before re-inventing himself as a reliever in 2007.

The journey began in Irving, where he learned the game from his father, Garry. As a senior at Grand Prairie High School, Wood went 14-0 with a 0.77 ERA and 152 strikeouts in 81 1/3 innings. Scouts lined up to see him pitch.

The Cubs selected him fourth in the 1995 draft, but two days after the draft they were infuriated when Wood threw 175 pitches in two games of a doubleheader during the state playoffs. Years later, people would point to that day as the seed of Wood’s arm troubles, something that stings McGilvray.

“I know looking back that’s probably not the right thing to do,” he said.

“But at the time the kids were involved, his dad was involved, it was a chance to go to the state tournament and Kerry wanted to pitch. Should I have done it? Probably not.” There were no signs of trouble when Wood cruised through the Cubs’ minor leagues system and went to big-league camp in Mesa, Ariz. in 1998.

“He was probably the best pitcher in Arizona that year,” said Nationals manager Jim Riggleman, who then managed the Cubs.

Scott Servais, who is now the director of player development for the Rangers, caught Wood’s first bullpen session that spring.

“Ed Lynch was our general manager then,” Servais said. “I walked over to him and said, ŒIf we’ve got five guys better than this, we’re probably going to win the World Series.’ “ Wood began the year at Triple-A, but was called up in April. Five games into his career, he became a legend when he struck out 20 against the Astros on a gray day at Wrigley.

It was later that year when the arm problems showed up, though. Servais remembers seeing Wood’s elbow after one start and “it looked like a softball.” The Cubs shut him down at the end of August, then brought him back to pitch Game 3 of the NLDS, but he was restricted from throwing a curveball.

“It was one of those things where players think they’re invincible,” Servais said. “There were some red flags.” The following spring, Wood’s fraying elbow ligament snapped in his first outing. He needed surgery and was done for the year.

“It was devastating,” Riggleman said. “The elbow went in his first appearance in spring training. It was a devastating blow. We all felt responsible. We all felt horrible for Kerry. It was early on enough with Tommy John surgery that we didn’t know if he’d be able to come back from it.” Wood made it back, but he was never the same. He won 14 games in 2003 and made the All-Star team. He pitched Game 7 of the NLCS for the Cubs that year, the closest he or the franchise would come to breaking the curse.

Now, Wood isn’t chasing ghosts or Cy Youngs. He’s a main cog for a Yankees team looking to repeat. The Texas legend is returning home to topple his hometown Rangers and show that tired, right, surgically repaired arm still has some magic left in it.